Chapter 8

Location: Jedi outpost on Shedu Maad.

Ben was raised to such great heights to find his Dad was safe. His elation was followed by the gut punch he received learning about Chance and Tendra. Lando, Han and Leia had already left by the time Ben made it back to base.

On further inspection of Luke his spirit dropped a bit more to discover that his Dad was safe but not as sound as he would have hoped. He was quiet... too quiet. And he could tell it wasn't just about the current tragedy unfolding. His eyes seemed to kinda drift to a point on the wall as his thoughts tried to steal him from the moment. After loosing one Parent he thought he would never let his Dad out of his sight again. But strangely, he hadn't been consumed by the fear of loosing his Father. Sure, there were close calls in the last 5 Years, but deep down he knew, he really knew:

Luke Skywalker was immortal.

If Abeloth couldn't kill him, then nothing could. He didn't feel that way looking at the very mortal looking man before him. In fact he had to resist the urge to lock Luke away in his room and never let him out. His Father didn't exactly look sick or vulnerable, in fact his force presence was never more powerful. Aburning flame in the force, it drowned out the other presences on Shedu Maad. Ben couldn't tell if Luke was happy, sad, scared... nothing, just that he was a burning ball of power.

The thing that gave Ben such unease, was his Dad's eyes. That was just it: They Weren't His Dad's Eyes. They belonged to someone who was unsure, directionless... not Luke Skywalker. At least not the Luke Skywalker of his lifetime. He was so thankful that his Dad would be joining the investigation. If he couldn't lock him up then at least he could keep an eye on him.

After a sonic shower, a quick nap and meal, Ben checked in with the investigation team. An hour after that, they were on Uroro station, which would serve as their base of operations during the investigation. After a brief sit-rep they got to work. Corran and Luke would examine the autopsy reports and learn what they could from the injuries sustained by Chance and Tendra. Dena, was charged with backtracking the Calrissian families movements and interactions in the day's prior to the "incident".

"incident" That's what Corran was instructing them to call it, not the "accident" or the "attack".

"Keep an open mind! We must suspect everything as a potential element of foul play and yet at the same time, nothing should be our primary target. Don't skip anything! Document your work!"

With that parting advice, he sent everyone off to work. That Left Tahiri, Ben, and R2D2. They had been assigned "ground zero":

The Shuttle.

Ben resisted the urge to just rush inside the ship. He had been taught investigative techniques by the best, his late mentor and friend: Lon Shevu. He had hammered into Ben the ethos of a good investigator:

"Assume that you only have only one shot at the evidence so get it right. In this case that meant working from the outside in. They spent over six hours examining and documenting the damaged hull and the debri spread all over the bay's floor. R2 made their job a lot easier. Luke had installed a plugNplay forensics package before heading up to the station. The effectiveness and professional grade of the add-on, produced by Industrial Automation, was recognized and accepted by the GA's Department of Justice and by most local authorities galaxy wide. The package included a sensor booster which enabled the droid to pick up anomalies down to a molecular level and forensic analysis software that could identify patterns or correlations. It also contained a mag clamped photoreceptor enhancer that could take forensic quality holos, and finally a Sample Probe attachment for his clasper arm that could take sealed samples to preserve for testing and as evidence in a trial.

It didn't take long for them to fall into a rhythm. Ben or Tahiri would note a place of interest and then call over R2D2 for some on the spot analysis. The ever important first clue gleaned with the help of R2's fancy gear was that the damage on the hull was not caused by an impact or from internal explosion. R2 determined that there were micro fractures found on the entire hull. These fractures didn't seem to have a point of origin. True there were large pieces of debris, but they were most likely ripped off the shuttle as a consequence of the momentum and inertia involved in hyper space, not from a direct source.

In other words: it was as if the entire hull had started to breakdown at the molecular level. This seemed to be a point for the: "hyperspace accident" camp. As Tahiri pointed out an explosion would have caused damage to radiate outward from a central point. In this case however it looked like the ship started to just... disintegrate?

"Well looks like we need to go inside." Ben said, eager to find more clues.

Tahiri nodded in agreement but was a lot less enthusiastic about it. A mother and her young child were mortally wounded in there, by a ship that may have turned on them. She wasn't afraid of the ship, she was afraid of herself. Just climbing in through the sliced hull was a bit disturbing to Tahiri. In 30 something years of life she had experienced enough tragedy and trauma to last a lifetime. At age 3, her parents were killed by Tusken raiders. She was raised by Tuskens, mutilated by the Vong, forced to see her first love die trying to save her. It didn't stop there, she was banished by the Jedi, manipulated by Darth Caedus into doing great evil, and at one point she was even sentenced to death by a court of law. Living through all of that was so much harder than simply dying like so many of her friends had. Inside that wrecked shuttle she was reminded how around every corner there seemed to be nothing but heartbreak waiting for her.

This time it was not her tragedy but someone else's. She steeled herself and focused on the task at hand.

There was no need to go looking for Damage. It seemed there was not one square meter of undamaged bulkhead or plating. With a big thud and scolding whistles, she could tell Ben had used the force to levitate R2 through the makeshift hatch and lower him, not so gently by the sound of it, onto the decking.

They should have stuck with the plan inside just like the outside: Systematically, from the point of entry. But this time the force was guiding them. Without saying a word they both knew where to start their search: Where Tendra and chance were found. That's where they needed to be. Tahiri headed for the cockpit and Ben headed for the escape pod.

When Ben and R2 reached the escape pod he noticed that the pod's hatch wasn't nearly as damaged as the rest of the ship. "Artoo, can you open er up?"

To which the droid responded with a few cheerful chirps and beeps. He then inserted his interface arm into the powerless console and gave it a temporary boost so Ben could activate the pod's hatch. He didn't worry about contaminating the scene by touching any surfaces since both him and Tahiri had applied Synth-seal on their palms and on the soles of their boots. With a pop/hiss, the hatch opened. Again, Ben noted the Absence of any real damage to the pod's interior.

Lando jr had been found just outside the pod. If he would've made it inside, there's a good chance he would have survived judging by the condition of the pod.

"He was so close Artoo." Ben said shaking his head.

R2 let out a mournful whistle. Ben stood there on the verge of an epiphany.

Then he got it: Why was Chance even by the escape pod.

This was not a place a seven year old would just be hanging out. He would either be at the recreation booth near the centre of the ship or ... With his Mom in the cockpit.

"Tendra must have sent him to the escape pod!" Ben exclaimed to no one in particular.

He resumed his single sided conversation in his head: "She knew! She knew he would be safe in the pod, which means... she knew.. the source and nature of the disaster?"

Not necessarily. In any disaster the escape pod would be the best chance for survival. Actually, maybe not. The latest Luxury Shuttle line had been based on the latest Lambda T Shuttle line. Which means the cockpit also doubled as an escape pod in case of an emergency.

"Unless... the Cockpit is where the disaster started" he reasoned to himself. "Come on Artoo", we gotta see Tahiri.

When Ben and R2D2 arrived in the cockpit, they found Tahiri on her back under what would have been the pilot's control console. Ben cleared a path for R2 through the mess of hanging cables and ruptured bulkhead plates. With out promoting the droid wheeled up to the nearest droid interface and plugged in.

"You find something?" Tahiri asked as Ben drew toward her.

"Maybe" he said then added: "Jag found Chance by the escape pod. We took a look at the Pod and it looked in pretty good shape comparatively. I think Tendra sent Chance back there because she knew something bad was happening and she was trying to stop or delay it while Chance tried to escape. But It's just a guess."

Tahiri pulled herself up to a seated position and replied: "I don't think it's just a guess Ben. Come take a look." He crawled down beside her and then flipped on his back and She lowered herself back down beside him. "What am I lookin at here?" he asked. She pointed to a spot deep underneath the copilots console.

"There was something here" she pointed out. It took him a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the low light, but then he saw what she was talking about. On the dorsal outer casing of the console was a circular impression that had been burned into the casing. Looking at the impression some more Ben got a little excited. It wasn't just a vague shape, the impression left behind had intricate details. If R2 could scan the impression he could run it against multiple databases to find a likely match. As it happened, R2D2 had just finish his unsuccessful attempt to clone a copy of the computers memory files. There was simply nothing left to be compiled. In the next few minutes Ben and Tahiri flipped R2 on his back(to the little droid's chagrin) so he could take clear holos and scans of the impression. Next he and Tahiri headed for the exit, yelling behind: "Come on Artoo, we have to check in with Dad and Master Horn!" It had to have all meant something: The micro fractures on the hill, Chance at the escape pod, the weird impression on the console.

Ben was starting to get a bad feeling about this.